Now tonight I want to look again
at Jacob's leaving his father-in-law's
house, and the things that transpired in the leaving, and then Laban's
consequent pursuit of Jacob, and then their departing agreement. I titled the message, Laban Returns. to his place. Now the first thing
I want you to see, I've got several things I want to call your attention
to, but the first of these I want you to look and consider Jacob's
father-in-law. The name Laban means white place
in the wilderness. That's what it means. White place
in the wilderness. And you think about that desolate,
drab, uninhabited wilderness of just a wasteland without color
and no glory about it. The children of Israel just kind
of, they rejoiced, they crossed that sea, they rejoiced in deliverance,
and they woke up and they was in the wilderness, in an old,
brown, drab, lifeless wilderness. But out in that wilderness, there
was patches of bleached sand. that appeared white all over
that wilderness. These were actually called Laban. That's what they were called.
Later on, they built a city there and called it Laban. But Laban
means a white patch or a white place in the wilderness. And he's a picture. If you just look
at Laban and read the story and consider the things that I've
been saying, Laban is a picture of self-righteous religion. That's
what he is, a religion of works. Works religion always generates
self-righteousness. It's always some kind of a righteousness
depending on what they do, depending on how they act. And I read this
chapter to you here earlier. And in this chapter, you'll notice,
if you'll go back and read it again when you get home, you'll
notice that he is constantly ascribing everything that's going
on to himself. You know, I was out shearing
these sheep for your benefit so I could put food on your table.
And while I was gone, you grabbed my daughters and off you went,
stole them like a man with a sword. Ain't that what he said? But
that's not true. Jacob called his two daughters
aside and said, your daddy's a liar. He's lied to me, and
you know it. You're my wives. You've been
with me, and you've watched me, and you've watched me do your
daddy nothing but good. I've done everything he's required
of me, and he's lied to me about my wages 10 times, and I've had
enough. If you want to stay, you stay,
but I'm leaving. I'm leaving. And they agreed
with him. He didn't take a sword to them. He told them the truth.
And they followed after him. All through this story, Laban
is constantly giving Jacob something to do, giving him something to
do. And here's what I'm going to pay you. If you do this when
you're done, here's what you're going to get. And he'd do it
with both hands. He'd do it. With all of his heart,
he'd do it. And at the end of the time, Laban
didn't pay up. He'd give him something else,
and then he'd explain it away. He'd come up with this little
lie to cover it up with, explain it away, and then he'd give him
something else to do. And he'd give the father-in-law
the benefit of the doubt, write it off to his own ignorance,
and he'd go on and he'd give him the next thing. And he'd
do that, and he'd come to him, he didn't give it to him. He
lied to him about his two daughters. He lied to him about the cattle.
He lied to him time and time and time again. He's a picture
of all worldly religion, works religion, self-righteous religion. Do this, and God will do that.
You take the first step, and God will take the rest. God done
all he can do. Now it's all up to you. Works
religion. It never does pay up. 20 years,
Jacob worked for Laban without any reward. Think about that. He didn't have anything to show
for it. Now some of you did and some of you didn't. I was raised
in religion. And for all the years that I
was there, I had nothing to show for it. Nothing. Nothing. Twenty years he worked for Laban
without any reward. Ten times he lied about his hire. Now false religion, here's what
I want you to see. It serves the father of lies. Sometimes it knows it, and sometimes
it doesn't. But it always serves the father
of lies. Turn with me to John chapter
8. One of the hardest things for me to perceive being raised
in false religion, and I'm talking about back in the day, a long
time ago, was to believe that worldly religion is satanic. It's satanic. Did you hear what
I said? Worldly religion is satanic. Now, we want to talk about Muhammad,
and we say that's satanic. We want to talk about these cults
and say that's satanic. I'll never forget, I went up
to visit Gene's mother. And he took me a little side
road past where his brother, and it was his trophies fence
there for his catfish. He likes to fish for catfish.
And he had these big old bleached out catfish heads nailed up on
the fence. And he didn't tell me that we
were going by there or why we were going. He just did. And
when we got in front of that gate, he just kind of stopped. And
then we started back. Kathy said, what is that? She
said, is that one of them cults? You know, put those things away.
No, that's his trophy gate. Those are catfish heads. But
there are cults who do that. They go out and mutilate animals.
We had them down by Louisiana years ago. Occasionally they'd
find a cow back there. Somebody just peeled the hide
off of it while it was alive and just gross things like that. They mutilate animals and all
that kind of stuff. And they like to put their marks
out on the ground, those satanic marks, and they like to tattoo
them in their flesh and wear them on their clothes and all
that. What I'm saying to you is that worldly religion is satanic
in the same sense. It's satanic. They worship their
father, the devil. That's what they do. They're
blind, they're deceived. But their deception has led them
to Laban. Laban's religion was a religion
of Satanism, that's all it was. He worshipped Satan and he thought
he served God. And when he talked to Jacob,
he talked to him as an equal. We're both children of God. Every
time he'd get in a conversation, he'd tell him that. And I want
you to notice there in Genesis when he referred back to the
God of Nahor and all that, he's talking about those false gods.
He's not talking about the God of Abraham. He's talking about
those false gods back there. That's who he swore to. You won't
find Jacob swearing to God. He swore out of fear to his father.
He don't do that. He don't be fished into that. This modern day religion is as
much satanic as those cults. The Jews of old, they were not
pagan cults. Now listen to me. They were a
people who carried Bibles. They lived moral lives. They
taught the Scriptures. They met in synagogues to worship.
They had missionaries. They involved themselves in the
issues of the day. But in their zeal and ignorance,
what they thought was serving God was serving their father, the
devil. And I say this all the time.
Some people believe me and some don't. But whether you do it
or don't, it's so anyway. Natural Israel is a picture of
modern day religion. You just look at them, you see
what they did, how they answered, what they said. It reads like
yesterday's newspaper. Now watch this here in John 8,
verse 38. He tells these Jews. Now they
thought they were saved. They thought they were apt to
teach. They thought they were teachers
of babes. That's what Paul said in Romans 2. He said to them, he said, I speak
that which I have seen with my father. And you do that which
you have seen with your father. And they answered and said unto
him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said unto them, if you
were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.
But now you seek to kill me, a man that has told you the truth
which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham. You do
the deeds of your father. Then they said unto him, we be
not born of fornication, We have one Father, even God. We're not
godless. Isn't that what they're saying? We're not godless. We're not
pagans. We're not some cult. We have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, if God
were your Father, you'd love me. For I proceeded forth and
came from God. Neither came I of myself, but
he sent me. Why do you not understand my
speech? Even because you cannot hear
my word. Ye are of your father." What? The devil. Ain't that what he
said? The devil. And the lust of your
father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning
and a bold not in the truth because there's no truth in him. When
he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar
and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth,
you believe me not. Which of you convinces me of
sin? And if I say the truth, why do you not believe me? He
that is of God heareth God's word. You therefore hear them
not, because you are not of God." See what I'm saying? False religion. False religion. Most of what
makes up false religion are deceived. They're utterly convinced that
they're serving God. And I'm telling you, if you spend
any time with them, my father was in it. I admired my father.
I loved my father. He was a father to us kids. He
was an outstanding father as fathers go. But he was altogether
serving the devil in religion. Now, I'm just telling you how
it is. And if you looked at him, you'd swear he was serving God.
He lived a good life. He was a moral man. He took care
of us children. He did all those things. Did
all those things. But that's not who he served.
Not who he served. They're utterly convinced that
they're serving God, that they have favor with God, and that
they're qualified to teach others about God. And that they also
believe they're doing the will of God. They believe they can
do you good. And in a natural sense, I suppose
they can. They can feed the hungry. They
can do all those things that natural men require. House burns
down, they have a, whatever you call it, get some clothes, get
some gifts together, go down to that house and give to them,
go down to the hospital. Over the weekend, you'll see
it flooded with cars down there. Every one of them preachers down
there visiting the sick and all that. But spiritually speaking,
everything he said and did was harmful. Now, in a natural sense,
he raised those two girls. Must have cared a little bit
about them. Hard to believe he didn't care anything about them.
Kind of looks like he missed them a little bit when they left.
Ran out after them. But spiritually speaking, everything
he said and did was harmful. And this is what I want you to
see. This Christian warfare is not of the flesh. It's a spiritual
thing. This is what's going on here
in Jacob. He's teaching Jacob that this
work is a heart work. These things that involve and
operate of God, they operate in the spiritual realm. He's
teaching Jacob that. It's not of the flesh. problem. You're talking about these people here that are just
utterly convinced that they're serving God. These are spiritual
problems. These are spirit in the mind. Satan operates in the mind and
in the heart. He deceives. He deceives. They think they're
right. They'll fight with you. Go start up, fire up a big conversation
with one. You find out real quick, he'll
fight with you. He's sincere. It's not of the flesh. And the problem
is twofold. It's in the nature. It's in the
nature of man. He's fallen. He's ignorant. We're
ignorant. We hate to own up to that. We're
ignorant. We're easy. I told somebody one
time, because I always get it. I must have a big bullseye painted
on me for these hucksters because everyone that comes down the
road gets me. He shoots and hits the bullseye.
That's what I'm saying. We're easy marks for him, easy
prey for him. He can come along because of
our nature and he can just sweep us away with his lies. Just sweep
us away. It's in our nature. And the second
part of it is in him who exploits our weaknesses and our To accomplish
anything, now listen to me, to accomplish anything in the spiritual
realm demands the power and presence of God. Laban would have overtaken
Jacob and slain him in the wilderness. He was hot. He was mad. Number one, Jacob took all of
his cattle from him. He did it legally. He made him
look like a moron. He took everything that man had.
He left him there. If you go back and read that
account of those spotted cattle and stuff, the only thing he
left over there was those sickly cows. Sickly white cows. He left them over there. He said,
these are yours. These spotted cows and all these
are mine. He left with a healthy herd. There's a layman down there
that's supposed to have been his boss and his father-in-law
and he got nothing. He got nothing. And now he upped
some leaves and didn't tell him. He didn't even have a chance
to tell him another lie. He just up and left. And he's hot. He would have killed him. But
to accomplish anything, and God appeared to him in a dream. I
read you that a few moments ago. And he said, you say anything
good or bad, you're in trouble. You just don't. You watch what
you say. You go to this point, you don't
go no further. And he toned him way down from
what his intent was to Jacob. But to do any man any good, any
man, or hope to have any spiritual advantage at all, I must stay
within the ways and means that God has ordained, and His ways
are spiritual. This is what I want you to see.
We've got no power. We've got no power in these things.
I've got no power to pull men out of darkness. All I can do
is stand up here and tell you the truth as best I can. I can't
do that in perfection. But if I stand and I tell you
the truth and I wait on God, we have to wait on Him. If He
don't move, we're just going to get sucked into the lot and
that's where we're going to spend our days until we die. It takes
the power of God. And these things operate in the
spiritual realm. Paul said the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, not of the flesh, not in the natural
realm. mighty through God to the pulling
down of strongholds and casting down imaginations and every high
thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and brings
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. All
false religion, are you listening? All false religion operates in
the realm of the natural. It feeds the natural. It builds
to the natural. It ministers to the natural.
Its ways are to the natural. Everything about it is natural. There's nothing spiritual, nothing
left for the Spirit of God to do. Nothing. Now they talk like
it and they talk and ask and talk about the Spirit of God
and all those things, but you listen to what they're telling.
Listen to what they're saying. Listen to how they argue. Listen
to how they plead. They don't plead to the Spirit
of God to save you. They plead to you to save yourselves.
It always operates in the realm of the natural. All true religion
operates in the realm of the spiritual. In fact, this is what
Paul said in Romans 8, verse 6, to be carnally minded is death. That just means when everything
you do, you try to figure it out in a natural sense. That's
death. That's what that is. That's where it's going to lead
you. That's where it's going to lead you. There's a way that
seemeth right unto a man. That's that natural way. That's
that natural way. To be carnally minded, naturally
minded, that's death, fleshly minded. But to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. He said this in verse 13 of the
same chapter. If you live after the flesh,
you're going to die. But if you, through the Spirit,
do mortify the deeds of the body, you'll live. You see what I'm
saying? He just keeps telling them, this thing's spiritual.
This thing's spiritual. All false religion appears white
in the wilderness of this world, just like old Laban's name indicates. It appears right. Our Lord looked
at those Pharisees and He said, you're just like those whited
sepulchers down there. You're clean on the outside.
On the inside, you're full of dead men's bones. Now here's the second thing I
want you to see. When the messenger of God, by the power of God and
under the direction of God, calls his bride out of the house of
her father, Her father's not going to let
him leave without a struggle. There's going to be a struggle.
There's going to be a struggle. As long as Jacob stayed in his
house and served him as a son, there wasn't a problem, was there? I mean, Jacob had a lot of problems.
He wasn't getting anything for what he did. Getting promised
everything. But there was no, he didn't pursue
him, he didn't try to kill him, he didn't try to But Jacob, after
20 years of lies and deceit, realized that he hadn't gained
anything. He wasn't getting anywhere. He
wasn't accomplishing anything. Everything he got from his father-in-law
was a compromise of the truth. He never did what he said he
was going to do. Now, let me tell you something.
As long as you sit in the pew, most of you here know better
than this. I hope you do. But as long as you sit in the
pew and let them dictate policy, they'll let you over in the Sunday
school class, they'll let you go over there and say a few words
about election. They'll let you every now and then, if you want
to bring up the subject of predestination or something, they'll let you
do that. They'll let you go over here and talk about God's sovereignty
a little bit or a little bit about particular redemption.
They'll let you do that. You just let them keep on singing
whatever songs they want to sing. Let them dictate policy. Let
them sing I'll Fly Away if they want to and whatever else. They
stand up here and dishonor God with all their programs and things.
As long as you let them dictate policy, they'll let you have
your little part over here in the church. That way you can
see what a compromise it is. You said over here it's the truth,
but you don't really believe it or you wouldn't be putting
your stamp of approval when you come into a place and you come
in there and sit down and you listen and you come back and
sit down and listen and you put your offerings there and you
support that ministry. You're saying, I believe what
that man preaches. Well, if you do and he ain't
preaching the truth, what's that say about you? Now that's the way Laban was.
If you want to stay here, he let him have just enough to get
by to where his daughters wouldn't starve to death. And that's where
he kept you. And that's where they keep you.
That's exactly where they keep you. He let old Jacob hang around
and even marry two of his daughters, but he never let him have become
independent of him or challenge his authority in any way. When
Jacob left and he took his two wives and his children and all
the cattle with him, Laban took off after him with the intention
to destroy him. Now let me tell you something,
when you get sideways, now I've been there and I'm telling you
what I know. When you get sideways of religion, their intention
is to destroy you. They don't want you to, they
don't want to fire you in for you to, you know, say, well,
the Lord blessed you and take you. They want to destroy you.
They came out on the job where I worked, tried to get that man
to fire me. And he said, why? Well, he pastors
our church over here, and we're getting ready to get rid of him.
He said, let me tell you something. He said, the only people we hire,
every one of them out here, drunks and on drugs, and they're construction
workers. He said, we don't hire folks
because they're godly. We hire folks because they do
a good job. And he's as good on his job as anybody on this
highway, and we ain't firing him. sent them on their way. But they wanted to destroy me.
I had a wife and three children. They wanted to put me on the
street. I'm telling you, that religion, when old Laban mounted
up on that cattle, he grabbed those men, he told Jacob when
he got there, he said, it's in my power to hurt you. No, it
wasn't. And then he went up and fessed
up that little dream he had where God told him, he said, if you
say anything good or bad about Jacob, that's it for you, bud.
That's it. They mean to do you harm. They
hired thugs to beat up the Apostle Paul. Hired thugs. People that they wouldn't be
seen with those people in public for anything. They went down
there and paid them. going to beat this man up. They
hired false witnesses to lie on the Lord, paid them money
because they couldn't find any sin in him. And they all joined
hands to crucify him. The only thing that the kings
of the earth, the politicians, and the Jews, the religious folks,
and the Gentile pagans ever agreed on was the death of Christ. Natural religion pursues a messenger
of God for another reason. He takes away his gods. He takes
away his gods. Rachel took his gods, didn't
she? Somebody asked me this last week, I think it was William,
why Rachel took her father's gods. And I've been thinking
about it this week, and I come up with three reasons. There
may be 10, I don't know, but I came up with three. Three possible
reasons, and one is that she took them knowing that he'd squandered
her inheritance. That's what they said to Jacob.
They said, our father took everything that he said was ours and it's
gone. He squandered our inheritance.
He squandered our dowry. We got nothing. Nothing. Maybe she took it out of spite.
They were silver, gods of silver. Later on in the scriptures, they're
called teraphims, what these things were. And then the second
reason for taking her father's god, because they were her gods
too. You think about that for a little
bit. How many of your old father's gods you still got in your tent?
Huh? We still got a lot, don't we?
They were her gods too. She hid them. She hid them from
Jacob. And she hid them from Leah. But
she still had them. And we still got them. We don't
want anybody to see them. We don't want anybody to discover
them. But God did this thing in such a way as not to... He covered it. He covered it
and justified her in what she did in His providence. He hid
these things from everybody except her. And he let her know in his
providence, I know what you got in your closet. And he knows. And he lets us know, too, don't
he? And then the third reason is
this. And I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt here.
She wanted to take them from her father's house, realizing
the evil that came to her father over these gods. That's the first thing I did
when I learned something about the grace of God. I went in and
tried to kill my daddy's God. That's the first thing I did.
I thought he was going to kill me over it. But that's what the
believer knows, the evil of it. They see it. They know what it
is. They've discovered it. These people were enlightened
about labor. They knew something about labor.
And they were leaving willingly, leaving his house, getting out
of there forever. They had no intention of coming
back. They were gone. Maybe she took them for that
reason. But there's only one way for
Laban's house to be sanctified, and that's to destroy his gods.
God is going to be God alone. He's not going to be a god or
some god or another god. He's going to be God alone. God
alone. And then notice this. O Laban, in all of his fury and
all of his intention, is stayed from his purpose, stayed in his
power from doing Jacob any harm. If religion had its way, and
God's given its way in times past. You go back and read Boxer's
Book of Martyrs. You go back, there was some ages
and times when God let religion loose, when he turned them loose
on men. And boy, when he did, it was, like I said, they want
to destroy you, and destroy you they will. There's no end to
what they'll do to a believer. But Laban was staged from his
purpose and from his power by an intervention of God. And he
brought his accusations and charges and he accused and made insinuations,
but God justified Jacob in his house. Listen to how this reads
here in Genesis 31, 36. Jacob got mad. Laban was just,
I mean, he was just mouthing him something fierce. And Jacob
was wroth, verse 36, and chole with Laban. And Jacob answered
and said to Laban, what's my trespass? What's my sin that thou hast
so hotly pursued after me? Where hast thou searched all
my stuff? What hast thou found of all thy
household stuff? What of yours have I taken? Set it before my brethren and
thy brethren, that they may judge betwixt us both. You see what
I'm saying? In God's providence, He withheld
those idols. He covered them. protected Jacob
and justified his whole house. Does he not justify us through
faith, imputed righteousness, justify us though we carry those
things in our hearts? Yes, he does. Yes, he does. And does he not ask this question
in Romans chapter 8? Who is he that condemns? Ain't
that what Jacob said? You got some evidence, bring
it out. He couldn't bring it out. The accuser of the brethren,
the old father of lies, he can't bring one accusation against
you because all you did is under the blood. You see what I'm saying? Under the blood. What a picture.
The gospel of Christ by which God imputes righteousness by
faith. Though hidden away in our tents
are evil things carried with us out of the old house. yet
they're not discovered or brought into the light, being hidden
under the blood of Christ. God does not deliver us. I want
you to see this, too, by compromise. He's not going to compromise
His name, but by the full, free, and just redemption in Christ
Jesus who gave Himself for us. All right, here's the third thing.
After justifying His house, Jacob reached this conclusion. and
Laban, and they got together, and he agreed with his father-in-law,
and they made this covenant, and they built a pillar of stones
as a memorial. And Laban called it Jigar Sehaduthah. What that means, that's a great
big name, that's a Chaldean name, and here's what it means. It
means a heap of stones for a testimony. But Jacob called it Gallard means
the same thing, a heap for a testimony. And then he calls it mispa. And that carries the idea of
a watchtower. Now he set up this memorial.
Just think about it. Jacob played a stone, told his
servants, go get some stones. We're going to build up a, and
they built this big pillar up there out in the middle of the
wilderness. And they entered into this covenant, into this
agreement. And he said, now this pillar
here, this is Laban talking, he said, this is going to stand
not just while we're here, but when we leave here, this thing
is still going to mean the same thing. It's going to be like
a watchtower. It's going to bear witness of this covenant. Even
when we're departed, even on to future generations. Now, these
things didn't mark boundaries to their countries because neither
one of them owned the country where they was at. They didn't
mark boundaries for a country. And this was kind of a strange
agreement for either to cross this line to do the other harm. That was the agreement. That
was the agreement. was that an agreement couldn't
be brought to pass. They could not agree with one
another. They could not get along with one another. And they agreed
on that. It was like a dividing place. He built this pillar here,
and it stood as a testimony that they could not be reconciled.
You come past this point, you're coming to do me harm. If I come
past this point, I'm going to do you harm. What's that sound
like to you? That sounds like grace to me. Grace is the pillar. It's the
testimony of God. If you cross that line, grace
becomes works. If He crosses the line, works
becomes grace. You see what I'm saying? Ain't
that what that says there in Romans chapter 11? He didn't
mark boundaries. Grace can't mix with works without
becoming works, and neither can works mix with grace without
ceasing to be works. This is like a point of no return. This is a place where the believer
must come to to divide himself from the father of lies. He has
to come to this place. He has to come to this covenant,
this agreement, this testimonial, this memorial. You're going to come to this
spot where you're convinced either of grace or works. And you see
that there's going to be no reconciliation. There's going to be no compromise
of this thing. free, sovereign grace. Over in
1 Samuel 7 and verse 16, it said, Old Samuel went from year to
year in circuit. Samuel was a judge back in the
days when Israel had judges. And Old Samuel went from year
to year in circuit. Here's where he went. He went
to Bethel, he went to Gilgal, and he went to Mizpah. That's
where he said, Bethel, we know, is the house of God. God judges
His people from His house. We know that. Gilgal is the place
where the reproach of Egypt was taken away. It literally means
a heap of foreskins or a mound of foreskins. It's all the old
warriors, the men of war that came out of Egypt. God caused
every one of them, carcasses, to fall in the wilderness. Those
young men who were born in the wilderness are the ones who came
into the promised land. But they were uncircumcised.
And the first thing he told Joshua to do, go get you a sharp stone.
We're going to circumcise every male in a bunch. He said, this
day, this day, he said, I'm going to take away that reproach. I'm
going to take away this thing that's shameful to you, whereby
they died in the wilderness. And I'm going to circumcise you
this day. That's Gilgal. And mispha, that's
this line of division, no compromise. The beginning of true faith.
This testimony is what divides Laban from Jacob. That's it. Here it is. The only thing these
two could agree on is that their differences could not be reconciled.
And what marks the differences between the father of lies and
true believer is the testimony of God. God told Laban, he said,
you've gone as far as you're going to go. So Laban said, let's just build
a pillar here. Let's don't go no farther. All
the testimony of grace to believe her. He's truly separated from
that Father of lives. She walks with her new husband
back to her father's house, back to his father's house. All this testimony of grace.
That's where you come. You come to this point. And then
the last thing I want you to see is this. In the last verse
of this chapter, it says, And Laban departed and returned unto
his place. This is a sad thing. But all
false religion stays in its place. That's where it stays. Apart
from an intervention of God, it's going to stay right where
it is. There's no forward motion, no
growing in grace, there's no coming to God, not coming to
God's house. And they may hotly pursue one
taken out of their midst, and they might chase after and accuse
God's ambassador. But in the end, they're going
to go back where they were. Go right back where they were.
In the Scripture, it uses this term. The hog returns to his
wallowing in the mire and the dog to his vomit. You know why? Because there are still hogs
and still dogs. That's why. It has to be an intervention. It has to be a change. Laban
could never walk in fellowship with Jacob. Now, there are three
reasons why Laban returned to his place. I'm just going to
mention these and then I'll close. The first reason is because he
loved it. He loved it. Paul said, Demas hath forsaken
me, having loved this present world. That's why he went back.
He loved it. He never quit loving it. It was the birthplace of
everything he loved and believed in, to all he ever knew. And it suited his nature to a
T. The second reason is this, because
he would not believe in the God of Jacob or trust in his promises.
Religion can't let go. It can't do it. God requires
that a man let go. You have to turn loose. You're
not going to get anywhere with God until you turn loose. He's
going to make you turn loose willingly. Those two girls turned
loose, didn't they? They left their father's house.
They left everything they ever knew. They turned loose. Laban
couldn't turn loose. Religion can't turn. They can't
turn loose of that old isle they walked down. They can't turn
loose of that old experience they had. They can't turn loose
of those things. They can't turn loose of those
tears they cried. They can't turn loose of those
things. That's where their hope is, is in those tears and in
that experience and in that isle walking and in those decisions.
There's no hope in those things. The hope's in Christ. When a
man sees that, he'll turn loose. He turned to look. I remember years ago down there,
Kathy and I went out to eat one cold winter day. We was over
there at the seafood restaurant. And I loved to go over there
because they had these little short, little half ears of corn with
stick in them. And they had them in this butter.
And they rolled them around that butter and steamed them in that
butter. And they had spices in that butter. And I'm telling
you, them little ears of corn was good. And we was in there,
and we ate our seafood and stuff, and we was sitting over there
waiting. One of my members owned a restaurant, and we was waiting
to talk to him. And this little boy was over there eating, and
he had corn from head to foot. And he done chewed every bit
of corn off that little cob, and he was still sucking the
butter out of it. And they got ready to go. And
they wanted to wipe his hands off. He was covered with butter,
and he had it everywhere. He was all over me. We was having
big fun watching. But they got ready to put his
coat on, it was cold wintertime, and he wasn't turning loose with
that corn. And so the mama tried to just reason with him, you
know, give him, but there was no reasoning. He was hanging
on that cob of corn with both hands. So his daddy was going
to get it. So he got up and he got pretty
rough, started threatening him. That little boy just, he was
hanging on that corn, just shaking all over. He wasn't going to
turn loose with that corn. Owner of the restaurant came
over and he said, I believe I can help you if you don't mind. He
said, I don't want you to think I'm butting in, but he said,
I think I can give you a hand here. And he said, well, go ahead.
He pulled out a Hershey bar and let a little boy just let go.
He just let go. That's when we're going to let
go, when we see something better. When you see something better,
you turn loose. You turn loose. You turn loose. And then the
third reason is this. Laban was scared to die on foreign
ground. Now, I want you to hear me. The
thing about the gospel of Christ, these things that I preach to
you, the promises of God and this thing of faith, is that
they have a bearing on our death and life hereafter. These are
not things that if you Well, if he's wrong about this and
I'm wrong about that, I'll get straightened out after a while.
You're not going to get straightened out after death. It's appointed
unto man once to die after this, the judgment. These things have
a bearing on eternity. You see what I'm saying? Old
Laban, he come up here and he didn't want to follow. He didn't
want to go on. He didn't want to turn loose.
He didn't want to do those things. Because he's scared to die out
there on these things. He's scared to die on these promises.
That's what it takes. Now, I'm telling you the truth.
A man has to be convinced. And when he is, he'll let go
of everything. His life, his death, his family,
his income, everything. It's all balled up in one thing. It's in Christ. Here it is. And
he lets go and lays hold of Christ. Lays hold of Christ. These things are of eternal consequence,
and they're not things that's going to be rectified after death.
That thing of purgatory, that's just another lie. It says this
over in Revelations, he that is unjust, let him be unjust
still. He that is filthy, let him be
filthy still. But it also says the same thing
about the righteous. Those righteous in Christ, let
the righteous be righteous still. Still. Laban, he returned to
his place. Our Father, we thank you for
the good news of Christ. what pitiful creatures we'd be
without this gospel story, without this enlightenment, this glorious
gospel of Christ. What pitiful creatures we'd be.
We'd be in here tonight discussing scorpions with tails and who
knows what. We'd be in here talking about
future prophecies and times and all this ignorant things that
the world goes with, finds glory in. But instead, we can come
in here and look at these things of Christ, and look at these
eternal things, and we can see them, and find hope in them,
and grow with them, and see Your glory in them. We thank You for
Christ's sake. Amen.